Children's Experience of Receiving Occupational Therapy: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

The voices of children and their perceptions of receiving occupational therapy have received little attention in child-related research in occupational therapy. Most research has used adults as proxies and focused on children as subjects of inquiry rather than informants. The perspectives of children were infrequently represented in the literature in spite of client-centred practice being a core tenet of occupational therapy. There existed an opening to pursue a research study targeting children''s views on receiving occupational therapy. This study was informed by a human rights perspective and the new sociology of childhood. Philosophically and theoretically framed by phenomenology, children''s experiences of receiving occupational therapy were explored. Personal accounts from eight children aged between 6 and 14 years about their experiences of receiving occupational therapy were gathered using multiple interviews. Three major themes were found and addressed the children''s perceptions about why they received occupational therapy; what they did during occupational therapy; and how they had little control or influence over receiving occupational therapy. The findings from this study have significant implications for occupational therapy practice in terms of challenging the principles of client and family-centred practice when working with children.